Uranium-238 can be used efficiently in breeder reactors; plutonium is obtained and Pu is a fissile material in situ.
In a breeder reactor, uranium-238 absorbs a neutron and transmutes into plutonium-239, which is a fissile material that can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. This plutonium-239 can then be used as fuel in the reactor to produce energy.
Uranium. A breeder reactor can use either Uranium, Plutonium, or mixed Transuranic elements for fuel. Depleted Uranium or Thorium is used as the breeding blanket. Periodically the breeding blanket is changed: the old one reprocessed to make new fuel.
A breeder reactor uses uranium-238 or plutonium-239 as fuel. These elements can undergo fission reactions and produce additional fuel as a byproduct, making breeder reactors efficient in generating more nuclear fuel than they consume.
It is a continuous instantaneous process that happens in the nuclear breeder reactor.
Uranium. There is some interest in using thorium in the future. Thorium cannot be used directly as fuel in a reactor as it does not fission, it requires a fast breeder reactor to convert it to Uranium-233 which does fission.
Yes, a breeder reactor uses uranium as a fuel. Specifically, it uses a specific isotope of uranium, such as uranium-235 or uranium-238, to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. The reactor can also produce more fissile material, like plutonium-239, through breeding reactions.
Fast Breeder Reactors typically use a combination of plutonium-239 and uranium-238 as fuel. This type of reactor produces more fissile material than it consumes, making it an efficient way to generate nuclear power.
Moderators are not used in a breeder reactor because their primary purpose is to slow down neutrons to increase the likelihood of fission events in a thermal reactor. In a breeder reactor, fast neutrons are required to convert non-fissile uranium-238 into fissile plutonium-239, so using a moderator would hinder this process.
The fuel used in a nuclear reactor is typically uranium. Specifically, the most common type of uranium used is uranium-235, which undergoes nuclear fission to produce energy in the reactor.
thorium is breed to make uranium-233 fuel
A breeder reactor is a type of power reactor that operates without a moderator to slow the neutrons. This requires either Uranium fuel enriched to at least 20% Uranium-235 or Plutonium fuel to operate at critical without Uranium-238 in the core capturing the fast neutrons and stopping the chain reaction. Most breeder reactors use a liquid metal coolant (water is both coolant and moderator so it cannot be used) like liquid Sodium, NaK, or Mercury in their primary loop. The core of a breeder reactor is surrounded with a "breeding blanket" of either natural or depleted Uranium plates. The Uranium-238 in this blanket captures neutrons escaping the core and "breeds" Plutonium and other transuranic elements. Periodically plates of the "breeding blanket" are replaced and processed to extract the Plutonium and sometimes other transuranics to make new fuel for that reactor and other reactors. A well tuned breeder reactor can make several times the nuclear fuel it consumes in its lifetime.There was discussion some years back of using significantly detuned breeder reactors to rapidly destroy the excess of weapons grade Uranium and Plutonium resulting from dismantling of weapons retired due to treaty limits. Not much seems to have happened with that idea.
Experimental Breeder Reactor I was created in 1950.